New intersection, signal, trail to enhance Dougall Avenue

Dougall Avenue, one of our city’s busiest roads running north to south, will undergo an $8.9 million improvement starting Monday aimed at increasing traffic and pedestrian safety and expanding our trail network.

This project is a huge milestone for our city, and one that I am proud to have championed since taking office as a councillor and now mayor.

When the construction work is completed, Dougall Avenue will not only have a new intersection with a traffic signal and improved signage where the road merged with Ouellete Place, but for the first time in our city’s history, pedestrians and cyclists will be able to travel around the CN Rail overpass through a dedicated trail being tunneled through the railway embankment.

This feat of creative planning and engineering will solve what has been a decades-long problem in our city going back to probably before I was born. It eliminates an intersection that had the highest accident rate in Windsor, while adding multi-purpose trails to give pedestrians and cyclists full access to Dougall Avenue.

So, over the next few months, I ask for your patience and understanding as we reduce two southbound lanes on Dougall Avenue to one. I assure you, the short-term pain is for long-term gain. The project will involve building an underpass structure, a retaining wall and trail, adding enhanced street lighting and a new intersection. These are expected to be completed by end of November 2019. Next, we will complete the finishing work, such as asphalt on the multi-use trail, and landscaping, in the spring of 2020.

We listened to the concerns of our residents. We completed the environmental assessment. And now we are fixing the traffic problems while adding new amenities to enable and promote active transportation.

Every one of us, whether it’s myself as mayor or any of the city councillors, want to see improvements to our roads and trails. This is one improvement that I think will benefit a lot of residents and make a big difference to Dougall Avenue, which is travelled by about 47,700 vehicles daily.